When you read a food blog or an article on food or watch a food programme, it is inevitable you will encounter the phrase “he cooks with his heart” or “he cooks with love”. It appears so often that it is become a cliche.

So what does it mean to cook with love?

This brings to mind Lee Ang’s Eat Drink Man Woman. The first 15 minutes is food porn at it’s finest. We are shown Master Chu painstakingly prepare one ingredient that would be used in the preparation of another ingredient leading all the way to the final dish.

The punchline to the whole scene is that all that was for a simple Sunday family dinner.

For me, that tedium, effort and intensity depicted in that 15 minutes is what it means to cook with love.

Personally, I’m very happy with a simple ham or bacon sandwich for every meal. It’s only when I’m cooking for others, I sharpen my knives and stoke the fire.

I focus on the person I’m cooking for and let it flow. I don’t really follow a recipe, I simply allow the mind to wander and my hands to move.